The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

Tag: Tech

  • Mouse and Keyboard

    I now have a new mouse and keyboard, and they are awesome! The keyboard is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and it’s definitely the most comfortable keyboard I’ve ever used. It’s unique for several reasons: the comfortable curve in addition to the “natural” style of keyboard; great key action; comfortable, padded wrist wrest built-in; and reverse tilt. This one is for home, but I know I’m going to end up getting on for work too.

    The mouse is the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. There’s not a whole lot interesting with the mouse, other than it’s a lot smoother than my previous first generation optical mouse. When I picked it up today, I really wasn’t expecting a better feel, but I sure was wrong.

    If you’re in the need, these two products are definitely worth the money. Particularly the keyboard.

  • Awesome FireFox Extension

    ScrapBook is pretty darn cool. Just found and installed it, looks like it’ll be very handy.

  • AmbientOrbSvc

    ambient orb service

    That’s my new Ambient Orb Service up and running. There’s still some cleanup to do and an installer to create, but it is runnable!

  • So THAT’s how Google does it

    First time I’ve run across this: how Google’s search really works

  • Damn Spam

    Some of you may have noticed the comment spam attacks on my blog several times in the past month or so. I just blacklisted the repeated offender (220.93.120.39).

  • Faster?

    I’ve finished migrating to a new webserver, the former Windev. There should be a noticable improvement in responsiveness. The only thing left for me to do before I can say the move is complete is to get mailman 100% functional again.

  • Windev’s new home

    It sure feels strange/silly having an emotional attachment to a computer. I spent a few hours this evening getting more software installed on the new pc, Vega. It took a while but it is now doing the automated nightly builds for Chef and has the development environment all setup. As such, I just carried Windev down to the basement with the other slower computers.

    There’s still some data I need to pull off of it, but its job is basically over. The computer that got me through school, stayed up many late nights with me, and helped build numerous applications (including the quite profitable WakeUp! Alarm Clock) is now days away from being my new linux webserver. Adios Windev, you’ve been a trooper!

    Like I said, it sure feels strange…

  • New Memory

    Exchanged my memory stick today. Got home and the new computer booted right up. After installing XP though, I found the onboard nic can send but not receive any data. Good thing I had a new 100Mb card laying around to toss in. On to the visual studio installation…

  • Computer Parts

    This afternoon I decided I would buy the parts for my barebones kit that has been sitting for a month. So I went and purchased an Athlon XP 2500+, 512 MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo. Started to put it all together as soon as I got home, but 2 hours later I’ve determined the memory is bad and the store is now closed so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to continue. That just sucks.

  • PostgreSQL 8 Beta

    This evening I went and downloaded the new PostgreSQL 8.0 Beta which now runs natively on Windows. I’ve installed it but haven’t setup the Chef database yet because of my reliance on the fulltext module for text indexing – I’m not yet sure what fulltext searching options are available in 8. Anyway, it’s on my machine, with the intention of getting the Chef db running like it does on linux so a few people I know only running Windows can also run my software. I’ll provide more info as it comes.

    Shortly I’ll be ordering a processor, memory, and hard drive for my new barebones PC. I think the plan is to make it my desktop, turn Windev into my web server, and maybe retire the current webserver. The only thing that is going to be hard about that plan is turning Windev, my longtime Windows DEVelopment machine, into a Linux server. Oh the humanity!